Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Hello gorgeous, below.
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You got me with your almost brutally modern architecture, smashed into historic Garden Design.
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Then you dropped those orbs with a glint of art nouveau reverie taking a ride with Tinkerbell.
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Your furniture borders on cliche excepting it's an ode to cubism.
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Well do I appreciate the hands & intent pruning, a cocky marvel, to those who know.
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Finally, ending with how lush can you be with the smallest amount of input.
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You're darn tooting I want to see the rest of the garden.
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Pic, above, here.
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Adore garden pics telling a story, and teaching a Garden Design class.
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What do you see, above?
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Thursday, August 4, 2016

A friend created a Moon Garden. Circle of comfy chairs around a fire ring, open to wide expanse of sky. Many moons we shared, in her Moon Garden. Seasons didn't matter, we shared them all. Time passed and more chairs added, they have 5 kids and a zillion grandchildren, everyone loves the Moon Garden.
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Having moved over a year ago, of course, have had no more Moon Garden with dear Mary. We are missing our Moon Garden time.
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Rather silly, below, but how could Mary, or me, not like the idea?
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Once my garden rooms can finally be started, we are awaiting well digging, I will certainly lite our fire ring, in honor of many moons in Mary's Moon Garden.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Pulling the gate/columns forward, below, welcomes you from the wide world into their private world, elongates the entry, and adds a foyer to the front door. Painting the columns same as the house adds them to the footprint of the home, enlarging the home's territory.
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Painting the columns a different color, or if they were stone, still adds good features, excepting they become part of the garden, not the house.
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Great wisdom leaving the tops of the columns empty.
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Front door & light fixtures chosen well, they make the house seem taller.
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Note the gutters, below. Copper color, not the brick color. Well done.
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Roof, below, is like jewelry for the house.
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Repetition of square shapes, below, highlights the fabulousity of the tall round urns at the windows. Super contrast.
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This garden design has been done for centuries. Have seen it on several continents, and at all price points. Done it myself, more than once. Looks fresh & new with each reincarnation.
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Even the front door handle was chosen with care. Drapes vs. blinds, again, well done.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Last week I completed a Garden Design for a local family. Their home is new construction on 35 acres of beautiful farm land, open, wooded, pastures, broad slight slopes.
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The pool is near completion, the pole barn completed, the house has its exterior, now awaiting wall board and layers that follow.
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The home is huge. They have young children. Deer thrive on their acreage.
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Plantings, aside from deer proof, must be no care, they have no time for landscape maintenance. None.
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What to do? Farmesque is the theme I chose. With pool at the back, the front yard is open, mostly flat, short meadow. I sense the front yard will be THE play yard. Still, what to do with the Garden Design?
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At the far side of their front yard meadow, I designed a small pecan orchard, 8 trees, 2 rows of 4, with harvest table and strands of lights, for trunks and canopy. Trunks to be lit nightly.
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More than meals, a gathering spot for projects, or lounging with a book.
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Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Shopping list: lights. Prefer to make my own tuteurs.
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Twigs/wood can be found easily.
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Why have I not done this sooner? Must get it done during this season of early nightfalls.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic, lost provenance.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The island, above, is an old dresser with detailing applied to the back.

She removed a wall between table & kitchen.

The cafe curtains win a Garden Oscar. Beyond those curtains, inches, is their driveway, Funeral Home parking lot, and, ta-da, a Funeral Home !
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Sky & tree canopy are all you see.
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Perhaps the solution to your garden eyesore is inside your house.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics at jobsite, same garden as previous post. Yes, she made lunch, blueberry mini-muffins, pimiento cheese sandwiches, chicken salad, fresh fruit......iced tea mixed with lemonade. And, I got the story from him of how he met her when they were teens. They're grandparents now. The story began when he was a bagboy at Piggly Wiggly.
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You did notice the rug under the island?
.They've asked for a Chicken Coop, Pole Barn, Pond & a few other delicacies......

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

You do know this already? Interiors must be gorgeous from every garden view.
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Your home is the focal point of the garden.
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Walking with new clients, around their garden, seeing an ugly interior view I will turn my head, look into their eyes and my right eyebrow goes up. Enough said.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week. Same home as previous several posts.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A chandelier in my music room will soon grace the harvest table on the patio. Beautiful & violent it has hit many people in the head.
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Anticipating the new harvest table & chandelier on my patio is a January joy.
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Sourcing chairs now, table must seat 10.
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And which bonbon from the garage will grace the harvest table center? Yes, this is fun.
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I'm not impatient. This layer, the hunt, is excitement.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last year at a client's home. Before pics are already taken of the patio!
.If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me..Details about online design services..Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when youhire me to speak to your group..Details about lecture titles here..I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Sweetly scaled pendant light.
.A front door is always a focal point. When architecture & materials are already good why compete? Beware 'too large' exterior lighting at your front door.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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pic via DIY Home Staging Tips. You'll love the link, it's the best tips of Home Staging for 2012. Of course, too many decades of USA homes lack good materials/architecture, mine is one, so you want to consider the possibility of large exterior lighting. Then, beware of lipstick-on-a-pig.
.If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me..Details about online design services..Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when youhire me to speak to your group..Details about lecture titles here..I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

All new construction, below, constraints galore. Never knew steps & under-the-steps could be this joyful.

Use lattice or ceiling boards under the step treads? (1 of 87 questions about the steps!)

Across from the steps, below.

Repetition wins again. Paint color too.
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Lattice is special order, Magic Man added a strip for more privacy.
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A new room & deck were added above creating wonky space below. We should all be so lucky.
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The space is grand enough to be used as a Foyer in addition to the Outdoor Kitchen we created.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Hired a professional to shoot this project in January. Leaving the Foyer yesterday I said something about keeping a green table because of the green urn blah-blah. Beloved Burt wasn't there. Apparently Burt said the exact words only hours earlier. Finally, a Tara'ized Burt!!!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

And, looking in the same window.
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Landscape Design is more than plants. It's Vanishing Threshold with your interior, exterior & life.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week. Love the layers of this project coming together.